James 1:26-27 – If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
How many of you do the laundry at your house? If you do the laundry, and someone stains a piece of clothing and doesn’t tell you for weeks, months, or years, you’re very frustrated because the stain de-colors the fabric to the point that you can’t change it back and get the stain out.
I asked Grace about this because, this isn’t my area of expertise. If I stain something, I just go buy a new one. But Grace said if you stain something, you need to treat it as soon as possible because, the longer you wait, the worse it gets.
In this part of James 1, he refers to sin as a stain. For some of us, our behaviors and our sinful responses, some of our words and deeds, are sins we’ve been sitting in and repeating for a long time.
The question is – can you be made clean and pure? This verse says pure religion is to keep yourself from being stained by the world. What that means is, if you’re in Christ, you’re clean.
A lot of times people come to church and think they need to clean up their act before they come. That’s completely false. We all need Jesus to make us clean and we need to live in His Spirit to live our lives in a clean way. Jesus makes us clean, and our hope, prayer, and goal is to remain clean.
Does the metaphor of stains on laundry help you see how God sees sin? Repent of any sin that’s stained you and ask Him to help you live as the new, clean person you are in Him.
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